Image forming apparatuses are used as printers, facsimile machines, copiers, plotters, or multi-functional devices having two or more of the foregoing capabilities. As a conventional type of image forming apparatus, an image forming apparatus is known that has a cover member, such as a front cover, openable and closable in a pivoting manner at a front side of an apparatus main body to enable an operator to perform maintenance and replacement of components within the apparatus main body from the front side of the apparatus main body, that is, so-called front-side operation. As another conventional type of image forming apparatus, an image forming apparatus is known that has an opening and closing mechanism including an opening and closing member. The opening and closing mechanism includes a movable member, such as a sheet feed tray, removably insertable relative to the apparatus main body and a cover member serving as the opening and closing member, such as a cover, openable and closable in a pivoting manner around a pivot shaft between a closed position at which the cover member covers the interior of the apparatus main body and an open position at which the cover member opens the interior of the apparatus main body to the exterior.
However, no conventional arts (including the above-described conventional arts) are found to propose to deal with the following challenges. Specifically, in the above-described opening and closing mechanism having the movable member, such as a sheet feed tray, and the cover member serving as the opening and closing member, such as a cover, and the image forming apparatus including the opening and closing mechanism, for example, the cover member is located at an upper portion of the apparatus main body and the movable member is located adjacent to and below the cover member. In such a configuration, unless the pivot shaft is disposed higher than the movable member, a portion of the cover member (e.g., a bottom portion) interferes with the movable member when the movable member is removed from the apparatus main body. Meanwhile, unless the pivot shaft of the cover member is located lower than a position at which the cover member might interfere with the movable member, a member may interfere with the cover member in a part of the pivoting range in which the cover member starts to open from the closed position. In such a case, unless the position of the pivot shaft is changed in the vertically upward direction, the cover member may interfere with the movable member. To deal with such a challenge, simply, the clearance between the cover member and the movable member might be increase to prevent the interference of the cover member with the movable member. However, such a configuration may increase the size of the apparatus increases and degrade the appearance of the apparatus.